Investor couple purchases gated community's road at Tax Auction

[Drew MacDermott]

From a recent city auction, a couple purchased all the common ground areas of a private homeowners association, including the grassed islands, sidewalks, and private roadway.  I would like to think the association would be sure bills were being addressed correctly!  What are your thoughts on the story?

"Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders. .... 

The couple’s purchase appears to be the culmination of a comedy of errors involving a $14-a-year property tax bill that the homeowners association failed to pay for three decades. It’s something that the owners of all 181 private streets in San Francisco are obliged to do.

In a letter to the city last month, Scott Emblidge, the attorney for the Presidio Homeowners Association, said the group had failed to pay up because its tax bill was being mailed to the Kearny Street address used by an accountant who hadn’t worked for the homeowners since the 1980s."

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/art...